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Immigration worker union warns ‘serious threat’ of ISIS entering US

The union representing America's immigration caseworkers warned Thursday of the "real and serious threat" that Islamic State terrorists could gain entry to the United States, either by slipping through the southern U.S. border or exploiting "loose and lax" visa policies. 
Kenneth Palinkas, president of the National Citizenship and Immigration Services Council, issued the warning in a written statement. He's the latest to raise alarm that the Islamic State may be planning to infiltrate the U.S., though top security officials have said they see no evidence of such a plot at this stage. 
Palinkas specifically alleged the administration has made it easier for terrorists to "exploit" the country's visa policies and enter the homeland. 
He complained that the administration has "widened the loophole" they could use through the asylum system, and has restricted agents from going after many of those who overstay their visas. 
Further, he warned that executive orders being contemplated by President Obama would "legalize visa overstays" and raise "the threat level to America even higher." He said there is "no doubt" many are already being "targeted for radicalization." 
Palinkas' union represents 12,000 workers with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, which handles immigration documents. 
His statement, though, also backed recent claims from lawmakers and others that ISIS is already looking at the southern border. Palinkas cited the threat that "ISIS has already or will soon slip across our porous southern border." 
On Wednesday, Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, said at a House hearing with Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson that he had "reason to believe" that four individuals were apprehended trying to cross into the U.S. from Texas on Sept. 10, and that they "have ties to known terrorist organizations in the Middle East." 
Johnson said he had "heard reports to that effect" but could not speak to their accuracy. 
Johnson, though, stressed that the government had "no specific intelligence or evidence to suggest at present that ISIL is attempting to infiltrate this country though our southern border." 
At the same hearing, National Counterterrorism Center head Matthew Olsen also said: "There has been a very small number of sympathizers with ISIL who have posted messages on social media about this, but we've seen nothing to indicate there is any sort of operational effort or plot to infiltrate or move operatives from ISIL" into the U.S. through the southern border. 
Still, Johnson said the U.S. needs to be "vigilant" and aware of the possibility of "potential infiltration by ISIL or any other terrorist group." 
Warnings have been circulating for weeks about that possibility. 
In August, the Texas Department of Public Safety put out a bulletin that said ISIS social media messages showed "militants are expressing an increased interest in the notion that they could clandestinely infiltrate the southwest border of US, for terror attack." 
Chaffetz, in an interview with Fox News, said he's concerned about that prospect. 
"We have a porous border," he said. "I'm worried about them actually coming to the United States and crossing that porous border and getting into the homeland."

Kansas must remove Dem candidate from Senate ballot, state court rules

The Kansas Supreme Court ruled unanimously Thursday that the state must remove the name of the Democratic candidate running against Republican Sen. Pat Roberts from the November ballot, adding another twist to a now-hotly contested race. 
The court's decision leaves independent Greg Orman, who has been rising in the polls, as the only major opponent currently in the running to take on the 78-year-old incumbent. 
The court agreed with Democrat Chad Taylor, saying his formal letter of withdrawal to the secretary of state's office was sufficient to get his name off the ballot.
The court also said it did not "need to act" regarding Secretary of State Kris Kobach's "allegation" that the Democratic party must name a new candidate for the race. Kobach said earlier Thursday that the Democratic Party is legally obligated to pick a new nominee and set a Sept. 26 deadline.
The Roberts campaign has repeatedly accused Democrats of playing dirty politics after national Democrats such as Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill reportedly nudged Taylor out of the race earlier this month to make way for Orman. 
Roberts' campaign manager Corry Bliss said in a statement the court's decision is deliberately disenfranchising "over 65,000 voters" for "political purposes." 
"In a bow to Senators Claire McCaskill and Harry Reid, liberal activist Supreme Court justices have decided that if you voted in the Democrat Primary on August 5th, your vote does not matter, your voice does not matter, and you have no say in who should be on the ballot on Election Day," he said. "This is not only a travesty to Kansas voters, but it’s a travesty to the judicial system and our electoral process."
The National Republican Senatorial Committee also decried the decision, saying the Democratic party now has a "clear legal obligation" to name a new candidate. 
"Greg Orman and his liberal friends like Barack Obama might not like it, but they have to abide by the law just like everyone else," spokesman Brad Dayspring said. 
Orman's campaign manager said in response to the decision Orman would run against a broken political system no matter how many candidates were on the ballot.
"Kansas voters from across the political spectrum are fed up with the mess in Washington, and that's why Republicans, Democrats and independents are supporting Independent Greg Orman for Senate," Jim Jonas said. 
Taylor announced his withdrawal earlier this month, but Kobach, a conservative Republican publicly backing Roberts, declared that Taylor didn't comply with a state election law limiting when nominees can withdraw. Taylor petitioned the Supreme Court to remove his name from the ballot.
Kansas law says party nominees can have their names removed from the ballot if they declare that they'll be incapable of fulfilling the duties of the offices they seek. Taylor's letter said that he was leaving the race "pursuant to" the relevant law but did not say why, and he's never publicly given a reason for dropping out.
"We conclude the plain meaning of 'pursuant to (the law)' contained in Taylor's letter effectively declares he is incapable of fulfilling the duties of office if elected," the justices said.
Kobach argued that Taylor must explain himself, even if he simply says he can't serve as a senator, without giving more details.
Republicans need to gain six Senate seats to take the majority from Democrats and Kansas is one of about a dozen races nationally that could determine the outcome.
Kobach had said a quick decision was needed because ballots need to be printed Friday.
In another wrinkle, a registered Democratic voter in the state filed a new petition with the Kansas Supreme Court Thursday night asking it to force the party to name a new nominee.
David Orel of Kansas City, Kansas, filed the petition after his attorney sent the party a letter saying Orel wants to vote for a Democratic candidate.

Lawmakers renew call to roll back military cuts amid ISIS, Ebola fights

Defense hawks on both sides of the aisle are pointing to the new war against the Islamic State to revive efforts to roll back across-the-board Pentagon budget cuts.
Citing President Obama’s calls for an expanded bombing campaign against the terror group — whose videotaped beheadings of three western hostages drew international revulsion — longtime foes of what’s known as sequestration say now is no time to slash military funding.
Rather, they argue, the Islamic State, or ISIS, is just the latest threat that underscores the need to undo the $487 billion in automatic Defense spending cuts required under the 2011 Budget Control Act.
“Even before these things erupted, it was not adequate,” Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., said of Pentagon funding at a Senate Armed Services Hearing earlier this week. “As we all know, risk increases when adequacy is not met.”
The Oklahoma Republican was pressing Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey on whether the Defense Department has enough money to carry out Obama’s goal of destroying ISIS. While the Obama administration has requested an additional $500 million to pay for arming and training Syrian rebels, more than a month of airstrikes against the terror group have already cost hundreds of millions of dollars.
The fact the administration wants to expand operations has fueled renewed worries over Defense funding, including among those who support the White House’s proposed strategy.
“I am troubled by the hit that readiness has taken through some of the budget cuts,” Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin, D-Mich., told the Council on Foreign Relations last week, adding that while lawmakers have had some success restoring the funding, “the whole sequestration decision, looking back at it, was wrong.”
Beyond the task of fighting ISIS, crises like the Ebola pandemic in West Africa -- where U.S. military personnel are being deployed -- and the armed struggle in eastern Ukraine have military officials joining lawmakers in sounding the alarm.
“If sequestration occurs, we are going to have to continue to downsize the Army,” Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ray Odierno told reporters in Germany this week, according to Reuters. “We are going to have to decide where we do it.”
Though top Democrats and Republicans have called for “fixing” the Defense portion of the sequester by reallocating federal dollars, the cuts themselves were the product of a congressional vote to drastically rein in spending — a reality many believed would never come to pass. Indeed, though Congress last year approved a bipartisan, two-year budget outline that provided some relief to the Pentagon, the agency faces another deep cut of about $45 billion next fiscal year, which begins next month.
Of course, Congress has other avenues it could use to appropriate money to the department, including war-fighting funds. But those efforts, along with what Hagel hinted would be a more robust budget request for fiscal 2016, are sure to encounter resistance among deficit-minded members intent on shrinking federal spending.
Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama, the top Republican on the Senate budget panel, told Politico this week he’s not prepared to say “we’ve got to obliterate the sequester” to deal with the new threats. “We lived with the Budget Control Act numbers last year,” he said. “We’ve lived with them this year, and savings that the Defense Department was then executing are just now being harvested.”
For now, those eyeing a re-upping of the Pentagon budget are hoping polls that show public opinion surging in favor of striking ISIS -- coupled with bipartisan backing of the administration's initial request for $500 million to train and equip Syrian rebels -- will lay the groundwork for rethinking the Defense sequester before the next round of cuts kicks in.

Hayes: Obama’s ISIS approach 'the wrong way to begin a concerted campaign’

Steve Hayes said Wednesday on “Special Report with Bret Baier” that the mixed messages the Obama administration is sending to the public about the campaign being waged against the Islamic State militants are damaging to the administration's effort.
Hayes, a senior writer for the The Weekly Standard, said the administration's stance is sending the wrong message to the militant group, which is also known as ISIS and ISIL.
“I mean, the president gives a speech, a nationally televised, prime-time speech, in which he announces a non-war, and then we spend a week debating extensively and nationally about what we are not going to do," he said. "You have the president and his team, can’t decide whether to call it a war… They can’t agree whether there will be boots on the ground or not.”
Hayes called the messaging “exactly the wrong way to begin a concerted campaign” against a critical threat to our nation.
Moreover, he said that President Obama is sending a signal that while the Islamic State is a threat to our core interests, the U.S. is relying on other nations’ ground troops to solve the problem.
“[President Obama] is saying… ‘We’re going to get some other people to fight [ISIS],’” he said.

School tells kids to remove American flags on 9/11

Sometimes good intentions have unintended consequences. Just ask the principal of Woodruff High School in Spartanburg, South Carolina.
Principal Aaron Fulmer made national headlines this week after he directed students to remove American flags from their pickup trucks on September 11.
The patriotic teenagers had mounted large American flags in their truck beds – in violation of a longstanding school policy.

American flag bumper stickers are fine. So are American flag T-shirts. But students simply cannot fly American flags in their pickup trucks.

The policy, which has been in place for more than 20 years, bans anything that creates a disturbance on campus or draws an unusual amount of attention to itself.
“A bumper sticker is not going to do that from a distance, but a pole flag is,” Superintendent Rallie Liston told me in a telephone interview. “The American flag was never an issue for us. It was never anti-American flag. It was just no pole flags – period.”
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Liston said the original rule was created to prevent students from showing up at school with Confederate flags.
“It was inflammatory,” the superintendent told me. “Finally, we reached a point where we said no more pole flags.”
American flag bumper stickers are fine. So are American flag T-shirts. But students simply cannot fly American flags in their pickup trucks. Such behavior is impermissible.  
As the superintendent explained, it prevents someone from showing up with something offensive.
“If it’s an American flag – everybody is excited about it,” he said. “But what if it’s the Nazi flag or another flag you might not be congruent with?”
As you might imagine, the school’s decision has led to lots of protests and name-calling. A group of parents even stood outside the school waving American flags.
Superintendent Liston says all the anti-American accusations are just as far from the truth as can be.
“These are the most God-fearing, flag-waving, patriotic people you will ever find,” he said. “They are God and Country.”
But he said that with the growing fears over the Islamic State as well as the 9/11 commemoration – he realized at bit of hindsight was necessary.
“We dropped the ball with 9/11,” he told me matter-of-factly. “In hindsight we apologize to any veteran or service person for this happening. That was not our intent. It was just a rule that has been consistently enforced.”
In the meantime, he said there’s a good chance that next year the school will host a special program commemorating 9/11.
“I don’t want to ever get in the position where we take the American flag down again,” Liston told me.
Superintendent Liston seems like a true Southern gentleman – and I believe his apology is sincere.
As we say in the South – you know when somebody’s cooking your grits. And Superintendent Liston was not cooking my grits.
Nevertheless, it’s deeply troubling when any public school suppresses the patriotism of American teenagers.

Jonathan Dwyer, Cardinals' running back, arrested on aggravated assault charges

NFL running back Jonathan Dwyer was arrested on aggravated assault charges Wednesday in connection to two altercations at his home in July involving a woman and an 18-month-old child.
Dwyer, who plays for the Arizona Cardinals, is the latest in a string of NFL players to be involved in domestic violence cases.
The Cardinals said they became aware of the situation on Wednesday and are cooperating with the investigation. 
"Given the serious nature of the allegations we have taken the immediate step to deactivate Jonathan from all team activities," a statement released Wednesday said.
"We will continue to closely monitor this as it develops and evaluate additional information as it becomes available."
The NFL said the case will be reviewed under the league's personal-conduct policy.
Police told Reuters that the incidents involved a 27-year-old woman and an 18-month-old child. One of the counts was "aggravated assault causing a fracture" to the 27-year-old victim on July 21. The victim alleged that Dwyer threw a shoe at her 18-month-old son, Fox10Phoenix.com reported. Police said Dwyer admitted to the incidents, but denied physical assaults during an interview with detectives.
Neighbors heard a fight and called police, who showed up at the residence. Police Sgt. Trent Crump said Dwyer hid in the bathroom until police left. The next day, Crump said Dwyer snatched the woman's cellphone and threw it from the second floor of their home to prevent her from calling police about another dispute.
The woman came forward last week, providing police with information about her injuries and text messages that indicated Dwyer "was going to harm himself because of what had been going on," police said.
The NFL has been rocked by domestic violence issues ever since a videotape surfaced that showed former Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice knocking out his then-fiancee in an Atlantic City elevator. Then Minnesota Vikings star running back Adrian Peterson was indicted on child-abuse charges.
Critics have been calling on NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell to step down after Rice only received a two-game suspension for the attack before the video emerged.
Dwyer, 25, signed with the Cardinals earlier this year and was their second-string running back after spending the last four years with the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Australia raids foil reported ISIS beheading plots

Australian counterterrorism forces detained 15 people Thursday in a series of suburban raids after receiving intelligence that the Islamic State movement was planning public beheadings in two Australian cities to demonstrate its reach.
About 800 federal and state police officers raided more than a dozen properties across 12 Sydney suburbs as part of the operation -- the largest in Australian history, Australian Federal Police Deputy Commissioner Andrew Colvin told the Associated Press. Separate raids in the eastern cities of Brisbane and Logan were also conducted.
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported that the plan involved kidnapping randomly selected members of the public off the streets in Sydney and Brisbane, beheading them on camera, and releasing the recordings through Islamic State's propaganda arm in the Middle East. 
Police allege that orders for the attacks came from Mohammad Ali Baryalei, a 33-year-old former Sydney nightclub bouncer who is believed to be the highest-ranking Australian in Islamic State, also known as ISIS. A 22-year-old Sydney man, Omarjan Azari, appeared in court Thursday and is accused of conspiring with Baryalei and others to act in preparation for or plan a terrorist act or acts. 
Prosecutor Michael Allnutt said he was involved in a "plan to commit extremely serious offenses" that was "clearly designed to shock and horrify" the public. It is not immediately clear what sentence Azari faces if convicted. The accused did not apply for bail and did not enter a plea. His next court appearance was set for November 13.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott told reporters that he had been briefed on Wednesday night about the operation and discussed the planned beheadings.
"That's the intelligence we received," he told reporters. "The exhortations -- quite direct exhortations -- were coming from an Australian who is apparently quite senior in ISIL to networks of support back in Australia to conduct demonstration killings here in this country." ISIL is another name for the militant group that has established control over large parts of Iraq and Syria. 
The planned public attacks resemble the murder of Lee Rigby, a British soldiers who was attacked and killed in May 2013 by two Nigerian-born Muslim converts near the Royal Artillery Barracks in southeast London.
"This is not just suspicion, this is intent and that's why the police and security agencies decided to act in the way they have," Abbott added.
The arrests come just days after the country raised its terror warning to the second-highest level in response to the domestic threat posed by supporters of ISIS.
"Police believe that this group that we have executed this operation on today had the intention and had started to carry out planning to commit violent acts here in Australia," said Colvin, who is also the acting Federal Police Commissioner. "Those violent acts particularly related to random acts against members of the public. So what we saw today and the operation that continues was very much about police disrupting the potential for violence against the Australian community at the earliest possible opportunity."
"Right now is a time for calm," New South Wales Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione said. "We need to let people know that they are safe, and certainly from our perspective, we know that the work this morning will ensure that all of those plans that may have been on foot have been thwarted."
Last week, Australian police arrested two men in Brisbane for allegedly preparing to fight in Syria, recruiting jihadists and raising money for the Al Qaeda offshoot group Jabhat al-Nusra, also known as the Nusra Front. Colvin said the raids conducted in Brisbane on Thursday were a follow-up to that operation. It was not yet clear how the investigations in Sydney and Brisbane were linked, he said.
However, Fairfax Media reported that the arrests of the men averted a terror attack by mere days.
The government raised its terrorism threat last week from "medium" to "high" on a four-tier scale on the advice of the Australian Security Intelligence Organization. The domestic spy agency's Director-General David Irvine said the threat had been rising over the past year, mainly due to Australians joining ISIS to fight in Syria and Iraq.
When announcing the elevated threat level, Abbott stressed that there was no information suggesting a terror attack was imminent.
Police said at the time there was no terrorist threat to the Group of 20 leaders' summit to be hosted by Brisbane in November which will bring President Barack Obama and other leaders of the world's 20 biggest economies to the Queensland state capital.
Australia has estimated about 60 of its citizens are fighting for ISIS and the Nusra Front in Iraq and Syria. Another 15 Australian fighters had been killed, including two young suicide bombers.
The government has said it believes about 100 Australians are actively supporting extremist groups from within Australia, recruiting fighters and grooming suicide bomber candidates as well as providing funds and equipment.